The Cost Of Doing Nothing – Awareness Changes Everything!

June marks the beginning of a month long awareness campaign around life changing injuries sustained by brain injury. Unlike other types of injury or disease, damage to the brain is unseen. Those living with this silent impairment suffer at the hands of society in ways many don’t or could ever understand. It’s time to change this.

Misunderstanding is a prevalent issue in encounters with those with this injury. It is immediately assumed that mental illness is the root cause of such people. Acquired brain injury does not immediately equal mental health issues, it is one symptom but not the cause. It is a result of mild to severe impairment commonly caused by motor vehicle accidents, falls, assaults and sports injuries.

The damage is permanent. Over 1,000,000 people live in Canada with the outcome of brain injury and are pre-disposed to experience death at an early age. Those that survive, endure a journey that encompasses addiction, upset in primary relationships, damage to self-esteem and confidence and apathy many of which lead to homelessness as income is severely affected due to a high incident of job loss.

The stories of those living with brain injuries are too numerous to tell yet they most be told. “The courage to share stories, truth and messages carries a huge impact to our communities’, states Janelle Breese Biagioni, a professional counsellor and brain injury support worker. ‘Until a strong light is shone on the actual harsh affects and reality of those living with brain injury, communities and families of those affected will never truly gain what is needed to solve the issues.”

Brain injury survivors want to contribute to society. The desire for housing, access to health resources and a societal understanding of the debilitating affects can make a marked difference in the lives of these people.

The cost of injury is well over $25 billion. The affects of homelessness due to brain injury also runs well over billions. The cost of doing nothing continues to mount and those living within the realm of injury continue to wait for more effective solutions and help. Statistics show that providing housing for this demographic would positively affect our tax base revenue bottom line. It seriously costs us when we do nothing.

Services such as The Cridge Centre For The Family here in Victoria BC, is one such support provider for those having sustained an injury. The Cridge provides independent living/housing and skill re-development for its residents, connecting them back to a state of rehabilitation that fosters increased self-confidence and subsequent independence.

In order to help the over 1500+ brain injury survivors living in Greater Victoria with an estimated 780 which are homeless, awareness building is a powerful first step, however, it is not enough.

Ms. Biagioni, also known as The Hope Generator, is acutely aware that passive hope and conversation does not create the dynamic solutions necessary to solve an issue that continues to spiral within our community.

An opportunity to change this exists starting June 1.

Let’s take this month to challenge ourselves to better understand the situation of injury survivors and to collaborate to find the answers that are within our grasp. Active understanding includes the use of Social Media. A Brain Injury Twitter event is planned June 30, 2016. Communities across Canada can jump in and share their stories of survival as well as support. Reaching across the table to other support services in other communities will also take place. To receive notification of this Twitter and other events, please follow us on our Facebook page for continuous updates all month long.

We must bring our shared public and private resources together to find viable and sustainable solutions in order to change lives and change our community for the better.